Bernie Masters is a geologist/zoologist who spent 8 years as a member of the Western Australian Parliament. Married to Carolina since 1976 and living in south west WA, Bernie is involved in many community groups. This blog offers insights into politics, the environment and other issues that annoy or interest him. For something completely different, visit www.fiatechnology.com.au for information about vegetated floating islands - the natural way to improve water quality.

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Lessons from a would-be suicide bomber on how to defeat terrorism

A picture
given to me for my 40th birthday hangs in my home study. It is a lovely
still-life of a fruit bowl masterfully drawn in coloured pencil. Amarah (not
her real name), a 19-year-old intern, drew it for me during the time I worked
for the United Nations in Islamabad.

Amarah
had had a tough life until then. She was not well-off and struggled to stay at
university. She was an only child brought up by a single parent. What was more
difficult was that she was brought up by a single father. In her culture this
made for a very bleak future for a young woman.

Amarah
was volunteering with the massive two-and-a-half-year-long relief and reconstruction
campaign following the 2005 Kashmir earthquake.
Over the time we worked together, our conversations covered many subjects, from
religion (she, a devout Muslim, and I, an avowed atheist) to politics (Pakistan
was still a dictatorship), to life in general.

By the
time I turned 40 we had become close friends – perhaps too close for our age,
religious and cultural differences – hence why the picture has such meaning. I
liked her and hoped that she would have a good life.

“What
will you do after you graduate?” I once asked her.

“I want
to be a suicide bomber,” she said in a matter-of-fact way.

“How
would you feel if I died in your attack?” I asked.

“I would
be upset,” she said, “not because you would die, but because as a non-believer
you would go to hell. I like you and would miss you in paradise. I would like
to see you for eternity but can’t. That makes me sad.”

In a
strange way it was a lovely thing to say – how much she would want to spend
eternity with me even though she would have taken me from “this life” on earth.

Suicide
bombing is evil, as is terrorism. There is no justification for it and it must
be defeated. But how? Many people like to say that terrorists are insane. They
would read the above story and think Amarah was mad and perhaps I was nuts to
listen to her.

There is
another view, however. To defeat terror we must understand it. Listening to
Amarah’s thinking process and justification is critical to finding a path to
achieve this.

Theological
foundations

Most
Muslims, Jews and Christians believe in the same Abrahamic God. Gaining access
to God’s afterlife is the key reward for following the codes of conduct set out
by their religious traditions.

The
Qur’an, Torah and New Testament give Muslims, Jews and Christians guidance on
how to reach eternity with their common God through righteousness and piety.

However,
all three texts also have episodes of violence and butchery between their pages
which, when taken out of context or manipulated by evil, have been
used to motivate and encourage acts of violence.

So are the
perpetrators of this evil “crazy”? And how do we defeat them?

Imagine
if your life was pretty bleak and you had to have 60 years of miserable
existence before gaining entrance to heaven. Imagine, then, if someone showed
you a shortcut to escape this difficult life and gain access to heaven early.

Would
following the shortcut be crazy? Or would it be logical?

If you
were told that dying while trying to rescue a drowning child at sea would gain
you access to heaven, would a believer attempt it? Such altruism surely would
be rewarded? What about trying to kill an infidel who is intent on corrupting
the “lifestyle” that God wants humanity to follow?

Rabbi
Jonathan Sacks calls this
thought process “altruistic evil” because of the flawed belief that
such evil is what “God wants”.

Today,
nearly a decade on, Amarah no longer wants to explode. Instead she works in the
Pakistan arm of a major international bank. Creating a career and a sense of
hope for Amarah removed the desire to take the shortcut to heaven.

Defeating
terror

Amarah’s
story provides guidance on how to defeat terror in three ways.

Long-term
education support programs for susceptible communities, foreign and domestic,
need to be followed.

Organisations,
like Islamic State, that provide the logistics and planning for terrorist
attacks must be defeated. Strong foreign and domestic security responses by
armed and security forces must take place – including judicious use of drones
and military action where necessary.

The
motivation to shortcut the way to heaven must be tackled. Long-term economic
growth in foreign and domestic susceptible communities is key to the long-term
defeat of the shortcut’s allure.

We must
make life worth living for all. Economic disadvantage – including leaving
people to fester in refugee camps – does not help this aim.

Killing
innocents as collateral damage is also a powerful motivator. Military action –
while often necessary – has consequences and needs to be very carefully
balanced.

Only with
a long-term approach of education, economic growth and security action can
terrorism be defeated.